Throughout the 1960's Bob Dylan was the reluctant, informal .... This, Dylan
declares in the song “Hurricane”, which contains much the same message ...
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BOB DYLAN AND THE AMERICAN DREAM If any songwriter has articulated the attitude of the American collective subconscious towards the American Dream it is Bob Dylan. Throughout the 1960’s Bob Dylan was the reluctant, informal figurehead and spokesperson for social change. He revolutionized the idea of the popular song and created the idea that rock music could encompass sophisticated and literate lyrics. My focus question today will be: How is the American Dream portrayed in the lyrics of Bob Dylan? I will also relate ideas presented in Dylan’s lyrics with the texts we have studied in class. To give my speech some context, I will begin with a brief summary of Dylan’s life and achievements. Dylan was born in 1941 and grew up in a Minnesota mining town called Hibbing. Shortly after dropping out of college he hitchhiked to New York where he soon made a name for himself singing folk covers. He began to release his own songs in 1962, beginning with folk music where he was immediately labelled “Spokesman of the Generation” and considered by many to be a prophet. In 1965 he began to play rock music, in the process alienating his fan base, and produced a series of monumental albums. Since then he has released around 40 albums of varying quality and in a diverse range of genres including country, gospel, folk, rock and blues. His creative peak is considered to be the 1965 album Highway 61 Revisited, the perennial consensus greatest album ever made and what was even described by critic Howard Wenner as “the peak artistic achievement of Western civilization.” Dylan is credited with bringing the intellectualism of classic literature and poetry to popular music. Over the years Dylan has amassed many awards including Oscars, Golden Globes, Grammys and a Pulitzer Prize for "his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power.” And there is currently a strong movement to have him honoured with a Nobel Prize for Literature for lifetime achievement. Now, to assess the portrayal of the American Dream in Dylan’s lyrics, we must first define what the American Dream is and what it represents. The American Dream is based on the ideals of freedom, equality and the pursuit of happiness - these values being enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. During the 20th Century the American Dream also came to encompass material success and I will also look at Dylan’s take on the deficiencies of the upper class who, according to The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, are the party responsible for this corruption of the American Dream. For some themes I have chosen one song which I feel fully expresses Dylan’s opinion and message, for others I have compiled a number of lines which I feel better represents his views. One of the key early songs Dylan wrote on the theme of freedom, equality and peace is the 1963 song “Blowin‟ in the Wind”, his meditation on humanity’s inhuman nature which I will now play an excerpt of. Here Dylan deals a critique of social and political injustice in the form of a series of profound rhetorical questions the answer to all of which is “blowin‟ in the wind” meaning that, like the green light on the end of the pier for the character Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby, the answer is always seemingly within reach but never truly attainable. Dylan articulates the yearning of the people for peace in the line “How many seas must the white dove sail, before she sleeps in the sand?” - the dove being a symbol of peace - and in “How many times must the cannonballs fly, before they are forever banned?” He also pushes for freedom and equality in the line “How many years can some people exist, before they‟re allowed to be free?” Here, he is referring the the plight of black Americans who, though slavery had been abolished for almost 100 years, were still very much second-class citizens in the 1960’s. These pictures show Dylan performing at the March on Washington. To look further into the motif of freedom I will now play an excerpt of “Subterranean Homesick Blues”, an anti-establishment song from 1965. In this song Dylan likens America to a totalitarian police state with no liberty and no opportunity. Dylan establishes this when he references phonetapping and in saying “I‟m on the pavement thinkin‟ about the government.” He carries forward this idea in this stanza: Transcript of seminar presented by Tom Hermes, Semester 1 2011.
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BOB DYLAN AND THE AMERICAN DREAM “Look out, kid, it‟s something you did, God knows when, but you‟re doing it again, You better duck down the alleyway, lookin‟ for a new friend, The man in the coonskin cap, in the big pen, Wants eleven dollar bills, but you only got ten. The character Dylan in describes in this song is being pursued by teachers, policemen, tax collectors and the army even though they appear to have committed no crime other than being a young person in a world where everyone is prejudiced against them. In the face of such a controlling government, Dylan offers advice to the youth of America telling them to think for themselves in the line “You don‟t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.” As to the lack of opportunity in this America - I think that this is summed up perfectly in the delightfully pessimistic line “Twenty years of schoolin‟ and they put you on the day shift.” Dylan also looks at the hypocrisy and corruption of America’s biased justice system. In the song “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” he bemoans the unjust reality of America. This song is very much centred on exposing the lack of equality of American society in both racial terms and class terms. He tells the partially true story of an African-American maid being caused to die by the actions of an aristocratic white man because she was taking too long to get his drink. The trial reads as “In the courtroom of honour, the judge pounded his gavel To show that all‟s equal and that the courts are on the level And that the strings in the books ain‟t pulled and persuaded And that even the nobles get properly handled Once that the cops have chased after and caught „em And that the ladder of law has no top and no bottom Stared at the person who killed for no reason Who just happened to be feelin‟ that way without warnin‟ And he spoke through his cloak, most deep and distinguished And handed out strongly, for penalty and repentance, William Zanzinger with a six month sentence.” So here he clearly is lamenting the bias of the legal system citing the far too lenient sentence for the wealthy white man.This, Dylan declares in the song “Hurricane”, which contains much the same message, “Couldn‟t help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land where justice is a game.” This story also brings to mind the carelessness and lack of responsibility of the aristocracy for crimes against the common people seen in the actions of Tom and Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby. Just as Dylan makes a mockery of the preconceptions about the “Land of the Free” so too does he dispel the notions of “success” promised by the American Dream. He has a critical attitude even to the idea of success, at least in material terms. Dylan’s take on success can be seen in these quotes: “There‟s no success like failure, and failure‟s no success at all,” “Up on housing project hill it‟s either fortune or fame, you must pick one or the other though neither of them are to be what they claim,” “You find out when you reach the top, you‟re on the bottom.” And in the phrase “Money doesn‟t talk, it swears.” which I would particularly like to draw your attention to because I think this very true for the character Jay Gatsby. With his gaudy mansion and ostentatious displays of wealth in a vain effort to ascend into the privileged class he merely comes across as pretentious and tasteless, for Gatsby money truly does not talk, it swears.
Transcript of seminar presented by Tom Hermes, Semester 1 2011.
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BOB DYLAN AND THE AMERICAN DREAM Dylan delivers devastating appraisals to the growing corruption of America as a nation and so too the corruption of the American Dream as an ideal. His view on the growing corruption and depravity is seen clearly in lines like “The National Bank, at a profit, sells road-maps for the soul.”, “They‟re selling postcards of the hanging.” and “They make everything from toy guns that spark to flesh-coloured Christs that glow in the dark, it‟s easy to see without looking too far that not much is really sacred.” In the 1965 song “Like a Rolling Stone”, the song voted the Greatest Song of All Time by Rolling Stone magazine, we see the tale of a woman reminiscent of the character Blanche DuBois from Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire. As with all great pieces of writing it has layered meanings but in a literal sense it is a tale of a woman who has grown up in luxury but has now lost her wealth and is struggling to survive in the real world. Dylan delights in adding insult to injury and criticizing the protagonist’s earlier attitudes and really saying that they deserve what they got. This is Dylan’s critique of the indifferent, arrogant upper class. I will play a short excerpt of the song now as it is as much about the delivery as the lyrics. So, as we heard Dylan says Once upon a time you dressed do fine Threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn‟t you? People call, said, “Beware doll, you‟re bound to fall” You thought they were all kiddin‟ you He then really shows that he truly believes that the character deserves their fate. You used to laugh about Everybody that was a-hangin‟ out Now you don‟t talk so loud Now you don‟t seem so proud About having to be scrounging your next meal How does it feel?! Later he goes on to say: Princess on the steeple and all the pretty people They‟re all drinkin‟, thinkin‟ that they got it made Exchanging all precious gifts, but you‟d better take your diamond ring You‟d better pawn it, babe This last stanza evokes images of the decadence of Jay Gatsby’s parties and Dylan condemns the complacent and superior attitude of the privileged classes who attend such parties. The last song I will look at is “A Hard Rain‟s A-Gonna Fall” which is one which I feel fully expresses Dylan’s opinions of the shortcomings of the American Dream. Here, in a series of perfectly phrased metaphors Dylan completely destroys the utopian notion of America promised by the American Dream. The America of Hard Rain is a bleak and desolate one filled with “crooked highways”, “sad forests,” and “dead oceans.” It is one without innocence “I saw a new born baby with wild wolves all around it,” It is America that is spiritually dead “I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children,”, “ where the hunger is ugly, where the souls are forgotten.” It is an America with little opportunity for material success “I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it,” “I saw a white ladder all covered with water,” - the latter line referring to the slippery nature of Benjamin Franklin’s idea of the ladder of success - showing that the path to success is in reality long, difficult and dangerous and so denying the rags to riches aspect of the American Dream. It is an America where the upper class are careless and indifferent to the plight of the Transcript of seminar presented by Tom Hermes, Semester 1 2011.
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BOB DYLAN AND THE AMERICAN DREAM impoverished “I saw one person starving, I saw many people laughing.” It is a land of racial segregation and white dominance “I saw a white man who walked a black dog.” An unjust country where “the executioner‟s face is always well hidden.” (Perhaps also a reference to the Ku Klux Klan). In Dylan’s opinion the American Dream can only be achieved through widespread, radical social reform and he vows to continue to advocate this, “I will tell it and see it and think it and breathe it, and reflect from the mountain so all souls can see it, and I‟ll stand on the ocean until I start sinking.” But holds little hope that anyone will take heed “I heard ten thousand whisperin‟ and nobody listenin‟.” So there you have it - Bob Dylan’s take on the American Dream. Abraham Lincoln stated, at the Gettysburg Address of 1863, “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. It is for us the living to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us ... that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” One hundred years later Bob Dylan makes it absolutely clear that the work Lincoln refers to remains unfinished - American society remains one of inequality, racial segregation and material decadence. The American Dream, and the noble intentions it entails, has been long neglected, that much is clear. But it is not irretrievably lost. As long as writers like Dylan continue to advocate the ideals of liberty, equality and freedom of opportunity there remains hope for a society of the people, by the people and for the people. There remains hope that if American society embraces liberty and equality and rejects injustice and a culture of rampant materialism then the true ideals of the American Dream may experience a renaissance. Bibliography Boucher, David & Browning, Gary (eds.) 2004, The Political Art of Bob Dylan, Antony Rowe, Chippenham. Cott, Jonathan (Ed.) 2006, Dylan on Dylan: The Essential Interviews, Hodder & Stoughton, London. Dettmar, Kevin J. H. (Ed.) 2009, The Cambridge Companion to Bob Dylan, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Dylan, Bob 1966, Blonde On Blonde (Music CD), Columbia Records, New York. Dylan, Bob 1975, Blood On The Tracks (Music CD), Columbia Records, New York. Dylan, Bob 1965, Bringing It All Back Home (Music CD), Columbia Records, New York. Dylan, Bob 2004, Chronicles Volume One, Simon & Schuster, New York. Dylan, Bob 1976, Desire (Music CD), Columbia Records, New York. Dylan, Bob 1965, Highway 61 Revisited (Music CD), Columbia Records, New York. Dylan, Bob, 1963, The Freewheelin‟ Bob Dylan (Music CD), Columbia Records., New York. Dylan, Bob 2006, Lyrics: 1962-2001, Simon & Schuster, New York. Dylan, Bob 1964, The Times They Are A-Changin‟ (Music CD), Columbia Records, New York. Heylin, Clinton 2000, Behind the Shades Revisited, Harper Collins Publishers, London. Heylin, Clinton 2009, Revolution in the Air: The Songs of Bob Dylan Vol. 1: 1957-73, Hardie Grant Books, Melbourne. Heylin, Clinton 2010, Still on the Road: The Songs of Bob Dylan Vol. 2: 1974-2006, Chicago Review Press, Chicago.
Transcript of seminar presented by Tom Hermes, Semester 1 2011.
